[60] It has been said the Sirius carried no passengers. According to Notes and Queries, the New York Herald, of April 28, 1838, in reporting the arrival of the Sirius, says that forty-two passengers were on board, of whom eleven were females, for whose accommodation a stewardess was carried. A contributor to Notes and Queries quotes the authority of the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen for the statement that the stewards’ department consisted of three stewards, one assistant, two cooks, and a boy, and he asks whether this staff would have been required in an ordinary boat of 412 tons if there were no passengers.
The “Sirius,” from a Print of 1837.
The passage occupied sixteen and a half days, and the average speed was 8¹⁄₂ knots per hour; about twenty-four tons of coal per day being consumed. Her arrival at New York was hailed with delirious enthusiasm, and the excitement was yet further intensified when it became known on the morning of the 23rd, only a few hours after the Sirius had anchored off the Battery, that another steam-ship was sighted making its way to the port, and that the approaching vessel was greater than any steam-ship ever seen in American waters.
This was the Great Western, and New York celebrated the double arrival with that strenuous abandon attainable only in the Empire City.
The Great Western was built at Bristol by Patterson. She was brought round to London and left London again for the western port on March 31. Off Southend she was discovered to be on fire, and the heat and smoke were so great that all the engine-room staff had to take refuge on deck. Fortunately they had forgotten to stop her engines, and the vessel was beached on the Chapman Sands, her decks were cut into, and volumes of water were poured upon the flames. The fire was soon extinguished, and the damage was found to be much less than was feared. She floated on the tide and resumed her voyage under her own steam to Bristol. The fire was due to the ignition of the felt packing round the boilers. Owing to this adventure the Great Western did not sail from Bristol for New York quite as early as was expected, and it was this delay which enabled the Sirius to gain pride of place. The Great Western left for New York three days after the departure of the Sirius from Cork. Her average speed to New York was 208 knots per day, and she used 655 tons of coal on the voyage. Another account, published in 1840, says that of her 660 tons of coal only 452 were used when she reached New York. On her homeward voyage her speed was nearly 9 knots an hour as against the 8·2 knots outward, but she burnt only 392 tons of coal, the difference being accounted for by the fact that on the outward voyage she experienced very rough weather. Although she made a much faster passage than her little rival, it is but fair to remember that she was nearly twice her size, and with engines developing more than twice the horse-power.
A contemporary writer thus describes the Great Western: “The officers, crew, and engineers are about sixty in number. The saloon is 75 feet long, 21 feet broad, exclusive of recesses on each side, where the breadth is 34 feet and the height 9 feet. The decorations are in the highest degree tasteful and elegant, and the apartment may vie with those of the club-houses of London in luxury and magnificence. The splendour of a saloon is, however, a matter of very inferior consequence, and it is higher praise to state that the more essential parts of the vessel and all her machinery are examples of mechanical skill and ingenuity which cannot be surpassed.”
The “Great Western.” From a Print of 1837.
The saloon was decorated with about fifty panels, the larger ones, according to a contemporary description, representing “rural scenery, agriculture, music, the arts and sciences, interior views and landscapes, and parties grouped, or engaged in elegant sports and amusements; the smaller panels contained beautifully pencilled paintings of Cupid, Psyche, and other aerial figures.”[61] Every berth and cabin had a bell communicating with the stewards’ room, the method of communication being described as follows for the instruction of travellers: “When the attendance of the steward is required, the passenger pulls the bell-rope in his berth, which rings the bell in the small box (in the stewards’ room) and at the same time by means of a small lever forces up through a slit in the lid a small tin label with the number of the room painted requiring the services of the steward, and there remains, until the steward has ascertained the number of the room and pushed it down again. Thus, instead of an interminable number of bells there are only two. This arrangement, which is alike ingenious as it is useful, is deserving the notice of architects.”[62]